Apr 23, 730pm (local) is Singapore at UAE in one semi-final for Div 1. From the Gulf Rugby Paper, shared onto ARFU's wall:

The Bill McLaren events are over, the season has officially ended and the M&Y have even had their last weekend training, so now it is time for the International matches to take the stage.For Qatar, we wait for May, but for the UAE it is Wednesday the 23rd of April.UAE will be playing Singapore at the 7evens at 7.30 pm, in what is becoming an ever more historical footnote in the history of UAE and Gulf rugby.What happens after this game in terms of A5N hierarchy at this stage, no one is at all sure, but the players themselves will not be overly concerned. Such new beginnings for the UAE will also be one step at a time and Singapore will be a tricky enough encounter as it is.The squad has been officially announced and within contains 5 Emirati players, The 24-man squad, representing the UAE against Singapore on Wednesday is;

We wish them all the best and congratulate the many debut players for UAE International duty.

The other Div 1 semi final is May 10th in Hong Kong, Kazakhstan vs. Chinese Taipei. Most likely this is the curtain raiser for the Hong Kong-South Korea match.

While UAE may be favorite because of Top 5 experience, they have went with a number of new players so anything is possible. Singapore isn't too shabby a side either, wouldn't be surprised if this is a 10-15 point game.Kazakhstan is the favorite over Chinese Taipei and my favorite to win this division.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Schedule for Division 2 in Doha:

Starting next year the A5N format is changing. I'll post what I pasted in the FIRA forums detailing the future:

submitted proposal to HSBC USD 8-900K including TV, in hope would be acceptable, but HSBC have reverted too much. TG suggests we need budget allowing for minimum USD 100K from HSBC and TG will get more and thinks USD500K is possible. HSBC will not want title sponsor rights in A5N 2014, so host unions can attract their own finance sector sponsors.TG in discussions with other potential sponsors. But they will likely come on board in 2015 under revised competitions format.

Claude Atcher has told TG of potential TV coverage from Malaysia. TG: unless TV is sponsored, there will be no TV coverage.Hence cost of Top 5 + Divs 1-3 = USD 467K TV was USD 400K in past years; Sean Moore trying to bring that down to USD 200K.TG: ARFU can perhaps use some (200K?) of its reserves for this, or to upload whatever footage is available to You Tube etc. But should be last resort.AS: Setanta would take any footage.MO: IRB will be keen that last match in Tokyo (perhaps with the RWC trophy on show) be televised.

2014 will be last year in this format for Divs 3-5 with no automatic promotion or relegation from Div 3, 4 5 upwards and potential demotion from Div 2 for non-IRB full member unions, unless sponsorship can be found to support the ARC

These were from the ARFU Executive Meeting document annexes, that of course now require a login to access, but I think I still have it saved on my downloads if someone is interested in reading the notes, interesting stuff on many topics.

For Philippines, 4 new caps in startinv XV, all in forward pack (Sinclair, Heward, C. Anderson, Bennetts) plus 6 on bench (Power, Melrose, Mitra, Welch, Kong, Moschitz. Kenny Stern makes his 7th cap but first since 2011 against Hong Kong. Rupert Zappia if he comes on will make his first test appearance since 2011 against Korea. All 6 of Zappia's previous caps have come off the bench. Oli Saunders becomes third captain in Volcanoes history, taking over for Mike Letts in this match. Jake Letts will extend his caps record, making his 20th appearance (consecutive! He's only missed 1 match! Volcanoes have played 21 tests!).

I wasn't expecting HK to beat the Philippines so badly. In terms of physicality the teams seem similar to me. Neither have a proper pack of forwards. Someone mentioned in the stream's comments that there are no Philippinos in this side. Is that true? What's the state of rugby in that country?

iul wrote:I wasn't expecting HK to beat the Philippines so badly. In terms of physicality the teams seem similar to me. Neither have a proper pack of forwards. Someone mentioned in the stream's comments that there are no Philippinos in this side. Is that true? What's the state of rugby in that country?

Rugby is very new in this country. The national team has only existed since 2007, the majority of players on the team are bi-national (with a Filipino parent) born abroad.

First test match was in 06 with nearly all expats. The game is growing there, they have a 15s and 7s league but with little money it's hard to develop overnight.

Almost everyone on the national side has at least 1 Filipino parents, there may be a couple who've qualified on residency. You have to realize that the Philippines team got together in less than a week drawing players from so many countries. All players have to pay their way, take off work, etc. This wasn't a full strength forward pack either. It's developing, PRFU do a good job promoting what they can and spreading the game. They had a U14 (maybe it was U12, can't remember) side go and tour England a couple of years back. The Philippines squad will be miles better when they get to the Sri Lanka game off a bye week and some guys becoming available.

I think the new Asia format has been posted elsewhere and I welcome it. I see no advantage in HK 108, Philippines 0 to anybody. Yes you have to test yourself against tough opposition but I'm sure a coach has too much to work on with a score like that. I can see HK, Japan, Korea home and away working.

I would however prefer to see HK 'A', Korea 'A' and Japan Development sides in that Asia 1st Division. Japan Dev. could still score 50 points against say Philippines and these 'A' sides would provide both tough opposition and a realistic benchmark.

Now its all about the money isn't it so perhaps with $ in mind it might not work if it's played round robin. I was thinking more of an 8 team one venue tournament with two pools, 3 round robins and a finals day. Not popular but I'm thinking of the money.

So what would it look like?

Asia Division 1A-Japan, Hong Kong, Korea - H&AAsia Division 1B-Japan Dev, Hong Kong 'A', Korea 'A', Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, UAE and Kazakhstan One venue tournament. 2 pools-round robin, finals day. make promotion round if you win 1B Tournament and to did NOT lose to any of the 'A' sides. Promotion-relegation played in Div.1B home town. Last team automatically relegated to Division 2Asia Division 2-Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, Iran, Thailand-One venue, Sf and final format, 1 team relegated to Div. 3 East or WestAsia Division 3 East-Laos, Guam, China, Indonesia-One venue, Sf and final formatAsia Division 3 West-Qatar, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, India-One venue, Sf and final format East v West final automatically promoted to Division 2Asia Division 4-Lebanon, Brunei, Mongolia, Cambodia. Winner to either Div. 3 East or West. The structure of Divisions 3 and 4 would depend on who is relegated from Div 2 to 3.

I don't know if the phillippines were extremely weak or Hong Kong was extraordinary strong. Hong Kong has been improving a lot and have professionalised their National Team, so, as far as i understood, each national player is now at least a semi pro. in 2010, they played two friendlies agaianst Germany, losing highly. In 2013 however they beat Belgium twice. According to their website they really beleive in having a chance to enter the world cup. The game Korea vs. HK will very exciting, as it is very important and both teams seem to be on the same level now.

As I mentioned in my post above, the Philippines had been together for less than a week. They had 10 new caps. Not everyone is available for the first two matches. The Philippines I'm sure will be playing their best rugby at the end of the tournament when most of the best are there and everyone's had a chance to gel together. It's not like most of the Asian nations where they draw players from within the country and can train and communicate over the course of the year, the Philippines draws a lot from overseas and every year they discover a few more new overseas Filipinos. And some play in different positions that they normally do for their club. The main weakness is the forward pack. The backline is almost entirely professional but the forward pack doesn't have one. So partly the Philippines weren't as strong, and a lot of Hong Kong become more developed over the past year.

This is the tournament four female Asian nations. The female equivalent of five Asian nations. The tournament takes place every year around August / September, but the tournament is advanced in the calendar this year because of the World Cup 2014 women's rugby in France. Kazakhstan participates in effect. Kazakhstan (champion), Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore will participate.

Yeah, well from martin's info at the top of the thread it was pretty clear that this was going to happen, for the A5N anyway. I was hoping they'd at least stick with sponsoring the ASS since they've historically been a big part of 7s sponsorship. Unfortunately, it's sad to say you can't blame them. Even a company who has been very supportive of rugby in the last few years has to see some benefits from their sponsorship. It's not free money, and frankly the Asian unions and their blazers have done a poor job developing and growing the competition. It's at the same level of popularity it was in 2008. The crowds are poor and haven't grown. If I was a company CEO, even though I love rugby I wouldn't toss away my money on this championship. If I had seen some growth that gave me confidence for the future that might be different but we haven't. Quite frankly the loss of such a major sponsor shows up the lack of professional nous in the ARFU for taking the game forward and making it more popular in the region. It'd be nice if there was some accountability for this result. Trevor Gregory says in martin's peice that the unions can get their own sponsorship...hahahaha! Nothing the ARFU unions (with the exception of Japan and SL who have been able to attract some decent sponsorship) have done shows me they have the acumen to do that..more like dream on!

Japan team for Philippines. Hopgood, Murata and Matsushima to make their debuts, probably Horie and Hayashi off the bench. Mikami, Hatakeyama, Tamura and Goromaru return to strengthen the lineup. Fukuoka and Broadhurst must be injured.

Yeah, well from martin's info at the top of the thread it was pretty clear that this was going to happen, for the A5N anyway. I was hoping they'd at least stick with sponsoring the ASS since they've historically been a big part of 7s sponsorship. Unfortunately, it's sad to say you can't blame them. Even a company who has been very supportive of rugby in the last few years has to see some benefits from their sponsorship. It's not free money, and frankly the Asian unions and their blazers have done a poor job developing and growing the competition. It's at the same level of popularity it was in 2008. The crowds are poor and haven't grown. If I was a company CEO, even though I love rugby I wouldn't toss away my money on this championship. If I had seen some growth that gave me confidence for the future that might be different but we haven't. Quite frankly the loss of such a major sponsor shows up the lack of professional nous in the ARFU for taking the game forward and making it more popular in the region. It'd be nice if there was some accountability for this result. Trevor Gregory says in martin's peice that the unions can get their own sponsorship...hahahaha! Nothing the ARFU unions (with the exception of Japan and SL who have been able to attract some decent sponsorship) have done shows me they have the acumen to do that..more like dream on!

Gibbs, welcome to the forum. Nice to have a SL fan on here

Thanks mate..

The fault lies with ARFU.. In order for the game to take hold in the region there has to be grass root development.. But sadly expect for few Unions vast majority of rugby in Asia is concentrated on European/ANZAC/Islander expats.. Most Unions have manipulated the IRB player eligibility rules to the extent of being absurd

People bring up the argument about how top nations like NZ/Aus consist of foreign born players but forget that their domestic structures have been in place for nearly a century by locals and the grass root development is strong enough to withstand endorsing outsiders.. Then again both Aus and Kiwi players are born and bred in the country but just happen to be of Islander origin, Which cannot say for many Asian sides albeit a very few

If you cant popularize the game among the general public you cant expect much in return, And in order for the masses to support the game they need sporting idols that they can relate to

4N wrote:Philippines got pretty good crowds at the main soccer stadium in Manila last year. Why have they shifted to this venue for their 2014 home matches?

The usual field, Rizal staium Manila is in the works and the Japanese had refused to play the proposed Filipino another field, the university of Makati Stadium. The fear of such a field is injuries. This really is not the time. 40 ° C, small stadium, potato field next to a highway. Not bad to start the tournament ...